A Fresh Beginning
by wreckingduty
Summary: A young Shinigami that lost her powers is placed in the care of the Kurosaki family.


[**Information:** This story is the first I've written in quite some time, and has inspired me to get back to writing more. It originally was to be an RP prompt, but I got a bit carried away. As such, it includes things I normally don't write about, including my original character and plots like the circumstances of how she got to town.

I know the story's got some flaws, but I'm posting it as a comparison to see how my writing's changed over the years. It was a pretty good way to see where my weaknesses are in writing.

The story was originally written on September 20, 2010.]

Captain Unohana and a young, female spirit were walking through Karakura town, making their way to Urahara's shop. It was the middle of the day and the city was had a fair amount of activity going on.

Captain Unohana strode ahead, looking like she had a purpose in mind, while the girl slowly walked behind her, looking not at the things around her, but at the ground underneath her feet.

Once they arrived at their destination, Ururu let them in, and they waited for Urahara to come and speak to them.

After a few moments, the shopkeeper in question made his way into the room. "Sorry about that, just finishing up the last few touches. Is this the person the gigai is for?"

Urahara sold a great many things to the Shinigami stationed in the human world. He ordered useful supplies from the Soul Society and made his own creations. He had gotten into trouble for several of his creations, but, now, the higher-ups couldn't argue that they did come in handy.

This was a special case taken up by Captain Unohana. Nearly everyone had opposed it, including the girl's Captain, but, nobody really wanted to argue with one of the oldest captains serving in the Seireitei.

She had several reasons for the plan she had created for this girl. It had been a few months after the war, after Aizen had been defeated at the cost of Kurosaki Ichigo's powers.

Many Shinigami had been wounded during the war, including this girl. An Arrancar she had been fighting had severed her Chain of Fate, destroying her powers. The Arrancar was disgusted with this, and didn't even bother to devour the female Shinigami, the lack of power had made her not as delicious, and there was better prey to be hunted.

Usually, Shinigami that lose their powers in the line of duty are sent back into the Rukongai to live, with a nice salary so they could live comfortably. The girl had family somewhere in the Rukongai that had adopted her when she was a child, but she didn't know where they were, and it would take years to find them. The girl didn't know anyone else, so she'd be on her own.

Unohana, after knowing what Ichigo was like, thought it might be good for his recovery and good for the girl as well, if they spent time together. After all, they were in somewhat of the same boat, both had lost their powers around the same time, the war had occurred in quick bursts of action within a few days.

It had taken months for the girl to recover from the stab wound that had pierced her body, but now she was fully healed.

Unohana nodded to Urahara, "Yes, she was injured in the war; I thought she might be able to keep Ichigo company."

The shopkeeper got a mischievous expression on his face and a twinkle in his eye. He couldn't resist making a snarky comment, it was just too good. He took one look at the downtrodden girl, and then back to Unohana, "I don't think it's legal if only one person is willing, but I doubt even Ichigo would..."

Unohana cut him off quickly with a smile and a motherly voice, one of the most terrifying things in all of the Seireitei, "Urahara, if you would please get your mind out of the gutter and back to the task at hand, thank you." It wasn't a question; it was a command, one you didn't disobey under any circumstances.

Urahara fidgeted with his hat, "Ah, yes. Just finished the gigai, Ururu can show her how to use it." He regained his usual composure, "Hard to believe the Seireitei is actually approving use of this gigai, they threw a fit when I did the same for Rukia."

Ururu walked over and gave the girl a friendly smile and lead her back to the storage room.

Unohana closed her eyes and shook her head, "Actually, most of the Seireitei is against it, this is my own idea. I thought it was the best course of action for two of my patients. However, it's different, because this time, the user of the gigai is voluntarily accepting it."

Urahara sighed, "I know, I know, but I did what I thought needed to be done at the time, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen."

Unohana nodded, "Yes, well, there's no sense dwelling on the past, now is there? We just need to do what we can to brighten the future."

Urahara chuckled, "Right, and as long as Aizen and his crew's not around, the future is bright indeed."

Unohana smiled, this time an actual, caring one, "Yes, it is." She changed the subject, "Oh, do be sure to have a regular gigai ready soon. I think Rukia's going to have some time to visit in the next few weeks."

Urahara nodded, "I'll keep that in mind, I've got a few other orders to take care of, but since it's a simple one, it shouldn't take any time at all to do."

Unohana replied, "Good."

By then, Ururu had gotten the girl settled in the gigai, and they both had walked back into the room.

Unohana smiled, "Looks like a perfect fit, Kasai. Excellent work as usual, Urahara."

Urahara grinned, "I always do my best work, especially for the ladies."

Unohana glanced at him sideways, but said nothing on the matter.

The girl gave Urahara a small bow, "Thank you, sir, I appreciate it."

Urahara smiled, "It's no problem! I've gotta tell you a few things about it. I'm not sure if you've ever used a gigai before, have you?"

The girl shook her head.

Urahara nodded, "Very well then, you won't know the difference anyways. And since your power's gone, it won't be as rough of a change. However, you may feel a bit stiff at first; it takes a bit of getting used to. You won't be as free as a spirit, but you'll be a fully functioning human. You'll get injured like one, they aren't as hardy as Shinigami and spirits, they can't take much damage. You'll also probably only live 80 years, maybe more or less, depending. But, you'll probably find it worth it in the long run, as a Shinigami, you could die any day in battle, you won't be fighting at all. There's also some other perks to being a human, but you'll find those out in time. You'll need to go to school eventually, but there's no rush on that right now."

The girl blinked at all this; it was a little much to take in at once. She managed a weak nod. "Okay, thank you."

Unohana nodded as well, "Thank you, Urahara, I think we need to be heading on now."

Urahara grinned at the girl, "Good luck kid!"

The girl gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

With that, the Captain and the now-human girl walked out of the shop.

Unohana glanced at her, "Don't speak to me until we get inside. The humans can't see me, so we don't want them to think you're strange already."

The girl nodded slightly, understanding what she meant, it was one of the first few lessons about the human world that the Academy taught.

The pair walked in silence to their next destination, it wasn't too far to the Kurosakis' house.  
At the house, Unohana knocked on the door. The neighbors were used to Isshin being a tad...eccentric, so this would be a normal occurrence around the house.

After a moment, Isshin opened the door, his normal cheerful smile grew brighter when he saw his old comrade, "Oh, hey Unohana, come on in! Who's your friend?"

Unohana smiled and thanked him, walking into the house, "This is Kasai Akane, and I was wondering if you could do both of us a favor."

Isshin nodded and showed them to the living room, plopping down onto one of the couches, "Well, you know I'll do what I can to help, though I've got my hands full right now."

Unohana sat down on another, and Akane followed suit. "I'm hoping that Kasai will be able to help one of your problems."

Isshin blinked, "Huh, well, okay, I'm listening."

Unohana spoke, "Since you have extra room, because of the clinic, I was wondering if Kasai could reside with you. She's a Shinigami that lost her powers during the war, so I thought her and your son would get along, having that in common."

Isshin nodded, "That might work, he stays cooped up in his room all the time. Doesn't even bother to go to school most days. He's currently sleeping. Can't say I blame him, but it's not healthy. A growing boy needs interaction and excitement!"

Unohana smiled, "So she'll be welcome here?"

Isshin grinned, "You betcha, if she can get Ichigo cheered up, she's more than welcome to stay."

Unohana nodded, "Good, I'll leave you two to sort out the details then." She stood up from the couch and started on her way out.

Isshin and Akane stood as well. Akane gave Unohana a small smile, "Thank you for your help."

Unohana smiled back, "You're welcome, dear."

They all walked to the door, and as Unohana left, Isshin was hanging out, waving his arm wildly and yelling, "Don't worry about a thing, I'll take good care of her."

Once she was out of sight, Isshin got a mischievous grin, picked up Akane by the collar of her shirt and slammed the door, then proceeded to bolt up the stairs, all the while hollering at the top of his lungs, "ICHIGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Once he got to his son's room, a closed door was not going to stand up to the power of fatherly love, and he proceeded to kick it in.

Ichigo was sound asleep on his bed, but Isshin had the best attack plan (he said so himself) that he had come up with yet. He yelled again, "WAKE UP ICHIGOOOOOOOOOO!" and then proceeded to fling Akane at his sleeping son.

Akane gave a bit of a yelp as she arced through the air, too surprised at first to do anything. She landed on Ichigo with a thud, which caused him to sit up rapidly and fling her across the room. "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU WAKE SOMEBODY UP!"

Isshin grinned, "You're losing your edge, do I need to increase the number of attacks?"

Ichigo scowled, "No, just cut it out!"

As the two argued, Akane untangled herself and sat quietly on the floor. Her mind was still spinning from being tossed about.

Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck, "What in the world did you throw at me, anyways?"

Isshin grinned, "The newest resident of our house!"

Ichigo blinked, "What?"

Isshin looked around the room, "She's here somewhere... Oh! There you are, Kasai!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. "Captain Unohana said she needed someplace to stay, so she's gonna live with us."

Ichigo yawned, "That's nice, now can I go back to sleep?"

Isshin grinned, "Nope! You're going to show her around town!"

Ichigo gave him a blank expression and his tone was flat, "No."

His father pouted, "But Ichigooo..."

The son crossed his arms, "Not going to happen."

Isshin started up the dramatics, "Oh woe is me! My favorite son won't do a small favor for his beloved father! His father doesn't ask much, and even lets him skip school lately, for shame! He doesn't love his father at all, oh! Masaki! I'm sorry, I've failed you, let you down! Where did I go wrong?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Cut out the guilt trip."

Isshin gave a theatrical sob, "I'll have to show her around then. Leave my important job at the clinic! People would come by with their arm cut off, and ask for a bit of assistance, and no one will be here to help them! They'll die of blood loss on our doorstep!"

Ichigo sighed, "Stop being so dramatic, you said just a few days ago that things were slower than ever."

Isshin put his arm up to his forehead in a classic position of angst, "And while I'm showing her around, the others are going to gossip!" He pitched his voice higher of an imitation of an old lady, "Oh look, there goes Mr. Kurosaki, such a respected and wonderful man! But what's that? There's a young girl with him? She's not part of their family!" He gave a high pitched gasp and continued, "She must be his new girlfriend! And such a young one too! What a pimp he is!" He turned his voice back to normal, "Do you want your father to be thought a pimp?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes again and gave his father a look, "Seriously, the neighbors are used to your weirdness, they won't think anything of it."

Isshin pouted, "Fine, I didn't think it'd have to come to this. Masaki, I'm sorry. If you want a new door, then you've gotta show her around." Ah ha, his trump card!

Ichigo looked to the mess of the door, to his dad, and to the girl that looked very baffled by all that was going on. He gave a sigh, "Fine, you win, I'll take her around town."

Isshin gave him a grin, "Glad you saw it my way! Now go on and have some fun!" He started trying to push both of them out the door.

Ichigo flailed at his father, "Hey, hey! I'm not dressed to go out yet, I'm not going out in my pajamas!"

Isshin blinked, "Oh, that's right. Come on Akane!" And with that, he pulled the confused girl out of the room, and frolicked down the stairs.

A few minutes later, a very grumpy Ichigo walked down the stairs.

Isshin nearly danced over to him and handed his son a bit of money, "Buy some lunch while you're out, but don't eat too much and spoil your dinners!"

Ichigo nodded, "Fine, let's go. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get back."

Isshin shrunk back from his son dramatically, "How cold! Oh, Masaki, I've ruined our son! Not even a thank you when I hand him some money to eat! Woe!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and stuffed the money in his pocket. "Come on." With that, he quickly walked out of the door.

Akane gave a quick bow to Isshin, "Thank you!" Then she scampered after her grumpy host.

Ichigo kept up a brisk pace, but not too harsh of one. As they walked, he sullenly pointed out buildings and gave a one-word description of what they were.

Akane tried to keep track of everything, but she didn't even know what some of the words he was saying even meant.

After a while, Ichigo realized that no matter how fast or slow he walked, the girl following him did her best to stay behind him at the same rate. He sighed and turned around, "What are you doing?"

Akane blinked, "Um...following you?"

Ichigo shook his head, "No, besides from that. You're always walking behind me from the same distance."

Akane tilted her head, "Captain Kuchiki said you're supposed to walk behind your superiors at at least six steps."

Ichigo sighed, "Look, whatever I did was in the past. I'm just plain old Kurosaki, and you're just plain old...whoever you are." Names weren't his strong point, and he hadn't really been listening to his dad, just waiting for his antics to happen.

Akane gave him a polite bow, "I'm Kasai Akane."

Ichigo nodded, "So, you're regular old Kasai. So stop walking behind me at the proper number of steps, okay? Captain Kuchiki full of hot air, anyways, so don't pay attention to whatever he says."

Akane blinked, "But he's my Captain..."

Ichigo shook his head, "Doesn't mean he's always right or knows what's the best. He's made his share of mistakes."

Akane tilted her head, and opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but Ichigo cut her off, "Doesn't matter how I know, and I don't want to talk about it. Let's keep moving on." With that, he started walking off.

Akane trotted along to catch up with him, this time, she walked beside him.

With that conversation, a little of the tension cleared between them, and Ichigo wasn't quite as irritated. He was now explaining a little more about the places they passed.

After about twenty minutes or so, Akane's stomach grumbled.

Ichigo laughed, "Sounds like you're getting hungry!"

Akane nodded, "Yeah..."

Ichigo looked around, "Huh, well, there's a couple of places nearby, a pizza place..." He was going to list more, but Akane interjected, "What's pizza?"

Ichigo stared at her for a moment, "You've never had pizza?"

Akane shook her head, "No..."

Ichigo grinned, "Then you're in for a treat, come on!" He grabbed her arm, opened the door, and went in. "This place'll be perfect; we can get some little pizzas, so dad won't be angry about us not being hungry for dinner."

He looked at the menu, "You'll probably just want to start with a plain cheese, and then add more stuff next time you come. My favorite's the sausage and pepperoni."

They ordered their food, got their drinks, and sat down to wait for their lunch. It didn't take long for the pizzas to be done and set on their table. While they waited, Ichigo explained that you ate pizza with your hands, instead of a fork and knife or even a spoon.

Akane was about to pull off a piece and start eating, when Ichigo stopped her, "You probably want to wait just a bit, sometimes the sauce can burn your mouth. It's really good when hot, but then you can't feel your mouth for a week!"

She nodded, "Oh, thanks, that wouldn't have been fun."

Once the pizzas were cool enough to eat, they dug in.

After Akane's first bite, she beamed, "Oh, wow! This is great!"

Ichigo grinned, "Toldja! See what you've been missing all these years?"

Akane nodded, "Yeah, it's a shame I haven't had it before!"

They ate mostly in silence, occasionally commenting on something or the other. After they were done, they spent a few minutes sitting, and Ichigo asked Akane all sorts of odd questions, and she did her best to answer.

Ichigo stood up, "Well, we probably need to get going, there's a couple of important places left to show you, then we need to head on home. Yuzu and Karin are getting out of school soon, and they'll wanna meet you."

Akane nodded, "Okay."

They took care of their trash and left, heading towards the school. They stood outside, quite a few feet away. "This is the high school; you'll have to go here to learn. Dad can probably convince them to let you be in my class, seems like all the transfer students end up there anyways."

Akane looked it over, "How bad is this school?"

Ichigo chuckled, "Don't worry, it's not too bad at all."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, that's good."

Ichigo nodded, "I'll take you back home a different way, so I can show you a few different places."

As they walked, he pointed out more restaurants and stores. "If you don't have much stuff, I'm sure Yuzu would love to take you shopping for more clothes."

Akane smiled, "That's probably a good idea, I just have the clothes Mr. Urahara gave me."

Ichigo nodded, "Well, I'm sure we can take care of that."

They passed a few more places before arriving home.

Ichigo opened the door cautiously, peeking around to see if his dad was lurking. He didn't immediately see him, so he opened the door wide and was greeted with a roundhouse kick that he quickly dodged. "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU GREET YOUR SON WHEN HE COMES HOME FROM DOING YOU A FAVOR!"

Isshin grinned, "Hey, you dodged one out of my two attacks today, that's half, and half is failing! An F for the day! So far."

Ichigo grumped, "That's not fair at all, I was asleep during the first one!"

Isshin wagged his finger at his son, "Ichigo, Ichigo, Ichigo, how many times must I tell you to always be on guard? An attack can come and any time from anywhere! I must redouble my efforts!"

Ichigo gave him an exasperated look, "That's just great. Looking forward to it."

Isshin gave a thumbs up in response, "That's my son!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, "So did you get my door fixed?"

Isshin started up the drama again, "Oh, my son doesn't trust me to hold up my end of a bargain, how cruel!"

Ichigo crossed his arms, "Well, did you?"

Isshin gave a moan of angst, "Oh Masaki! I've raised our son to be untrustworthy!" He was probably going to continue on, but Ichigo went past him and headed upstairs, "I'll just see for myself then."

Isshin called after him, "How cold, Ichigo, how cold!" He then turned to Akane with a perfectly normal smile and tone, "Did you have fun? Did my son show you around?"

Akane gave him a smile back, "Yeah, it was great, we had pizza! It was wonderful!"

Isshin grinned, "There's a lot of good things about the human world, we've got a lot of different food."

Akane grinned back, "I think I'm gonna like it here, it's not going to be so bad after all."

[**Afterword:** The story went through 3 versions in my brain before I wrote this one down. I ended up giving Isshin a bigger part in this version. Turns out, he was my favorite to write. Looking back at it, I'm not sure if I'll write any more about my original character, but if I do, I'll need to flesh her out some more.

Thanks for reading!]


End file.
